Bearfence Mountain and South River Falls

Fun in the sun rock scramble

Hello fellow hikers! And, welcome to the new www.lynchburgexplorer.com. As you can see, I finally bought the domain name. No more having to type lynchburgexplorer.blogspot.com to visit your favorite VA hiking blog. So what changes are in store? Well, um...maybe I might type out more of these hiking blogs, on the count I'm actually paying for this. So good news for you, I guess? 
Well, enough with website news, now let's get down to today's hike...Wait a minute, did I say 'hike'? What I should say is 'hikes'. Because, this article today, contains not one, but two beautiful hikes in Shenandoah National Park. Bearfence Mountain, and South River Falls. What a great way to spend an early April Saturday, then by exploring these two great areas. I know you'll get excited to visit these hikes, so shall we begin?

Bearfence Mountain  Hike

Bearfence Mountain is just what I needed. I was in the mood to do some good old fashion rock scrambling. But, I had a late start to the day, so Old Rag was out of the question. I figured the rock scramble on Bearfence would suffice. And boy it did. The scramble required some fancy footwork to navigate from bolder to bolder. Sometimes hands and were needed. The 360 views were outstanding from the greenstone outcrops.

Could spend all day up in heaw

Anyways, it was time to head back to my pick-up. I love to climb this mountain. It's fun and a little bit challenging. But, I still had the rest of the day to hike in other areas of the park. This is why Shenandoah is so awesome. You can have lots of fun doing these simple 1 to 2 mile hikes all up and down the Skyline Drive. You could spend a whole day, or even a whole week hiking all the many trails in this great park. So, before I get onto South River Falls hike, here's a nice breakdown of Bearfence Mountain hike:
Length: 1.2 miles
Time: 1 - 1.5 hours
Difficulty: Some nice bouldering, I wouldn't bring the little kids on this hike. There are some iffy areas.
Location: Look for the Bearfence Mountain parking lot near mile marker 56 along Skyline Drive

South River Falls

Mcguvyer would be proud

After getting back to my truck, I noticed I still had a lot of time before I wanted to begin the South River Falls hike. I was planning on seeing the waterfall more in the evening hours of the day, that way it make for great waterfall photography. So, I went a little bit down the Skyline Drive, and started hiking the Pocosin trail. About a half mile into the trail, I realized I had completely forgotten my camera tripod back home. I knew without a tripod for stability, my shots of the waterfall would come out looking blurry. So, I came up with an idea to make a tripod out of sticks and rope. I proceeded to head back to my truck, and begin trying to make my all natural camera tripod. I got a lot of funny looks carrying my homemade tripod down the trail. But, the thing worked out pretty well. It kept my camera stable while on uneven and rocky terrain. 

Now it was time for the waterfalls. There was a nice overlook along the trail that offered a view of the falls. The falls looked impressive and enormous. But, as for picture taking, the trees really blocked the view. So I took a picture as best as I could from the overlook. Eh, not the best looking photo I've taken. But, no worries. The trail does continue on down past the overlook to the base of the falls. It was from here that I was able to capture some good quality photos.

Well, Looks like the sun was hanging low. I made it to the falls, with the right kind of sunlight to take some pretty decent photos. Anyways time to head back up. I was getting hungry, so I figured I would eat dinner at the Skyland Resort. But, before I could make it the resort,  I had one more stop to make. The sun was setting, and I was on the Skyline Drive, gotta find me an overlook to watch the sun setting of the Great Valley. I'll leave you with a view I saw from the overlook, but first here's some information on the South River Hike. Enjoy, and see you next adventure!
Length: 4.4 mi
Time: 2.5 - 3 hrs
Difficulty: Pretty easy going down to the overlook. A little rocky heading to the base of the falls, not too difficult
Waterfall height: 83 feet
Location: Look for the South River Falls Picnic Area near miler marker 63. Loop around the picnic area until you see the trail head near the water fountain.